Apartment Association of Los Angeles County, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles

Tenant Rights Groups Join Legal Fight to Defend City of LA’s Tenant Protections

In January 2023, The Los Angeles City Council passed permanent tenant protections to help thousands of Angeleno renters stay in their homes and prevent them from falling into homelessness. The protections were passed to safeguard renters’ housing security as COVID eviction protections were set to expire.

The new ordinances include the Nonpayment Threshold Ordinance, which prohibits evictions based on nonpayment unless the tenant is behind at least one month’s fair market rent, and the Relocation Assistance for Economic Displacement Ordinance, which requires landlords to provide relocation assistance to tenants forced to leave due to a significant rent increase. Thanks to these protections, Angelenos can no longer be evicted for being a few dollars short on rent, nor will they be forced to move due to exorbitant rent increases without also receiving support for moving and relocation expenses.

In March 2023, the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) filed a legal action seeking to overturn the ordinances. The challenge is yet another attempt by AAGLA to undermine critical common-sense tenant protections in Los Angeles so that landlords can more easily evict tenants or use rent increases to force tenants to self-evict.

In April 2023, tenant rights groups InnerCity Struggle (ICS) and Community Power Collective (CPC) filed paperwork to intervene and join the City of Los Angeles in the defense of the protections. Public Counsel, Bet Tzedek, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA), and Susman Godfrey LLP are the attorneys for ICS and CPC – organizations that represent thousands of low-income tenants who are still struggling to recover from the financial impacts of the pandemic. In May 2023, Judge Mitchell Beckloff granted the motion to intervene.

In May 2023, the Court denied a motion from the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) for a preliminary injunction to halt the enforcement of the two renter protection ordinances.

It is vital that tenants in Los Angeles—especially those not protected by the city’s rent stabilization ordinance—are safeguarded against eviction, homelessness, and displacement. Many households have not recovered from the economic impact of the pandemic, with an estimated one-third of households unable to afford rent. There is concern that without the City’s strengthened renter protections, a new wave of evictions and homelessness will occur.

UPDATE: January 17, 2024 – Judge Mitchell Beckloff has denied the petitioner’s legal challenge, finding that the City of L.A.’s tenant protection ordinances are both well within the limits set by state law. If AAGLA appeals the ruling, the ordinances will remain in effect during court proceedings. For more info, see the press release here.

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